State Roundup, November 18, 2009

The Baltimore Sun previews the additional $350 million in budget changes Gov. Martin O’Malley will propose to the Board of Public Works Wednesday. The story says they rely partly on new tax money from the deal between Constellation Energy Group and Electricite de France and on additional layoffs and cuts to the health department

The Washington Post blogs calls it $365 million,including $105 million in cuts with 60 layoffs and provides additional details. Unlike the previous round of cuts, the governor’s staff did not brief reporters, so the papers relied on some anonymous sources.

The Montgomery County Council unanimously recommended that the Maryland Transportation Authority lower its proposed tolls on the yet-to-open Intercounty Connector, the Post’s Katherine Shaver reports.  The Examiner gives its take.

Maryland has had 19 swine flu deaths, Sean Sedam reports in the Gazette.

The Capital’s Liam Farrell has more on the push by Arundel Mills mall for a slots venue there.

Heavy snow this winter could bury slim highway budgets, says The Capital’s E.B. Ferguson.

The agency that administers the state’s pension fund is seeking firms to advise it on its real estate investments and investments in private equity funds.

The Sun editorial page sees nothing wrong with the bonuses paid to workers in 2008 at the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund despite losing $20 million.  The full editorial was not yet posted. MarylandReporter.com covered this story on Friday. 

A surprising turn of events at the trial of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, as the prosecution rests its case without calling developer Ronald Lipscomb, who gave the mayor lots of gifts when they were dating, the Sun reports.  Experts disagree on whether this helps or hurts.

Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich showed up for his semi-annual talk to Prof. Richard Vatz’s persuasion class at Towson University, and the class got into a discussion of why he should run or not run for governor again, John Wagner reports in the Post blog.

About The Author

Len Lazarick

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Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

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